Engaging Families in Home Visiting Programs – A Relationship Perspective and Approach

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

Effective home visiting is relationship-based. However, relationships among parents, home visitors, and children are less investigated in literature. Three studies in this symposium explore how various program relationships in different home visiting models, along with programmatic and participant factors, shape families’ overall program experience and service use, and ultimately, impact program outcomes.

The first proposal examines how pregnant women’s engagement with a community-based home visiting service is associated with personal relationship history and social support from families. Latent profile analysis is used to identify different relationship profiles and associated engagement levels. The second proposal explores distinct patterns of participant experience with a doula home visiting service from multiple dimensions (e.g., amount of program contact, participant engagement and relationship quality with home visitors, and intervention focus), and shows how the experiences vary by participant and program contextual factors and are associated with parenting outcomes. The third proposal explores how Early Head Start program goals, professional development, and home visit content and frequency are related to quality of parent-child relationships, and whether these relationships are mediated by the quality of parent-home visitor relationships using a national database.

Three studies coherently adopt a relationship perspective in understanding several intervention process variables and mechanisms that lead to positive outcomes. One unique strength of this symposium is that it digs into specific variables that are critical for program efficiency but less investigated in research. Advanced analyses and data from large-scale as well as model-based intervention trials allow exploration of variations in different service delivery models.

Sub Unit

• Prevention and Interventions

Chair

• Jon Korfmacher, Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago

Discussant

• Beth L. Green, Portland State University

Individual Presentations

• Engagement in Doula Home Visiting Services: Relationship-Drive or Needs-drive? A Person-Oriented Approach to Supportive Relationships - Presenting Author: Yudong Zhang, New York University; Non-Presenting Author: Renee Clare Edwards, University of Chicago; Non-Presenting Author: Sydney L Hans, University of Chicago

• Profile Analysis of Teen Mothers’ Experience with A Home Visiting Program: Association with Parenting Outcomes - Presenting Author: Xiaoli Wen, National Louis University; Non-Presenting Author: Jon Korfmacher, Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago; Non-Presenting Author: Sydney L Hans, University of Chicago; Non-Presenting Author: Yudong Zhang, New York University

• Promoting Positive Parent-Child Relationships through Early Head Start Home Visits - Presenting Author: Cassandra Baxter, Mathematica; Non-Presenting Author: Yange Xue, Mathematica Policy Research - New Jersey; Non-Presenting Author: Sally Atkins-Burnett, Mathematica